John Porcari’s pending departure comes as the port envoy role will shift to a more permanent structure under the new Federal Office of Multimodal Freight Policy, created as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law in November.

Officials from the International Longshoremen's Association and the United States Maritime Alliance have had “discussions about discussions” in recent months about a contract extension that would focus primarily on wage levels.

Eliminating congestion necessitates ensuring adequate container flow through terminals, and when that core issue is prioritized, the performance of the US port system — and the global supply chain — will improve.

Inflation, higher interest rates, and a gradual shift back to a more “normal” balance in consumer spending between goods and services will reduce import volumes in the second half of 2022, in turn relieving pressure on ports and inland supply chains.

Don Becker’s public-facing approach served him well once he took over The Journal of Commerce in 1984, quickly establishing relationships with key shipping business leaders.

While longer berth times in Los Angeles-Long Beach reflect, in part, higher “call sizes,” carrier executives say more than anything else the elevated times are a direct result of the lack of space on the terminal.

The creation of an ILWU-supported California task force on automation shows how the union is increasingly determined to fight automation outside the confines of a contract that allows employers to automate.

There was a lack of substantial debate in the House before passing major ocean shipping reform legislation even after the ranking member of the maritime subcommittee warned that while he supported the bill, he had reservations.

End-to-end recovery in the global supply chain will only come through slower demand growth and a period of calm that is far from guaranteed as long as COVID-19 continues to affect manufacturing and consumption.

With an intuitive knack for diplomacy and a mind for strategy and deal-making, Frank Caradonna is widely credited with leading the integration of new carriers into the market in the early 1990s.

Many transportation executives, citing a highly fragile and capacity-constrained system and ongoing surprises tied to the unpredictable trajectory of the pandemic, are unwilling to declare the supply chain crisis has begun a period of sustained easing.

Despite ILWU leadership pledging to support the Biden administration’s efforts to decongest ports in Southern California, insiders remain worried the national spotlight on ports will not prevent labor disruption on the docks next year.

Near-term operational issues make it difficult for supply chain leaders to focus on climate change, but scientific reports are driving greater urgency to achieve fully decarbonized operations.

Carriers have always wanted to change their relationship with shippers; now they have the right market to do it.

The White House’s intervention to resolve port bottlenecks in Southern California faces steep challenges that will require coordinated action from terminals, truckers, and distribution centers effectively acting as an integrated system.

If passed into law as currently written, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021 would bring about the most profound changes to maritime contracting since the 1998 version by allowing the government to weigh in on what constitutes a “reasonable” agreement.

The current disruption exposes a glaring deficit in productivity, infrastructure, and information that predated the pandemic and has made North America the key culprit in the global meltdown in container supply chains.

The dispute hangs on a clause inserted into the master coastwise contract in 2003 that requires ILA representation of workers operating ship-to-shore cranes and yard equipment.

When ships sit outside ports and containers are not picked up and returned quickly, that loss of effective capacity causes record spot rates, high demurrage and detention costs, and lengthening transit times.

The current US West Coast dockworker contract will expire next July, leaving negotiations for a new contract to take place amid a predicted atmosphere of constrained capacity and high rates.

Shipping sources told JOC.com they expected a steady ramping-up with more cranes operating from Aug. 25 and full operations starting from Sept. 1.

A US importer’s complaint to US regulators of not getting trans-Pacific service contracts honored underscores how cargo demand and diminished efficiency leading to tighter capacity across all modes including ports is creating conflicts with carriers over agreed contracted volume allocations.

The proposed Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021 could restrain carriers from imposing legitimate detention and demurrage fees, undermining the goal of systemwide container fluidity.

A bill expected to be introduced in Congress in August would drive a sweeping bipartisan overhaul of US shipping law if passed.

Despite the rare intervention by a US president in maritime affairs, the regulatory landscape for ocean shipping remains largely unchanged.

News headlines show some progress toward decarbonization, but recent policy developments and unanswered questions about viability indicate the industry still has a long way to go to achieve full decarbonization by 2050.

With David Tolan as the first and longtime chairman of the Carriers’ Cooperation Council, longshore labor relations on the East and Gulf Coasts entered a prolonged peaceful period that continues today.

Just like the container segment, the MPV sector has been short on capacity in the last several months, but unlike on the container side, no major vessel reinvestment program has begun on the MPV side.

Current conditions in the trans-Pacific trade, with strong demand and severe capacity shortages leading to hyper-charged freight rates, are temporary, but the question is: how temporary?

Despite contract language allowing automation, the ILWU has increasingly come to see automation as an existential threat and a microcosm of the larger threat of robotics displacing human labor.

Maersk’s gambit to achieve the previously unachievable – becoming an end-to-end integrator -- still has its skeptics, but is showing few signs of slowing down.

An ongoing dispute between longshore labor and employers in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, in the wake of the now-ended strike in Montreal, could pale in comparison to a looming confrontation over terminal automation when negotiations begin on a new US West Coast contract next year.

An advisory committee to the US Department of Commerce will explore new options to support manufacturers and agriculture exporters struggling to obtain empty containers at remote hinterland locations.

After nearly a decade of systemic overcapacity that resulted in widespread consolidation and a moratorium on new vessel orders, container carriers are again ramping up vessel orders, but that doesn’t mean they’ll give up strong financial position in which they find themselves now.

If the only meaningful discussions with labor occur within the context of contentious and disruptive contract negotiations, no policy approach to the issue of container throughput can hope to yield lasting solutions.

Sweeping aside the reality that no shipper has been spared the impact of the pandemic on container shipping, agricultural exporters have sought to place the blame squarely on ocean carriers for causing undue harm to US exporters specifically.

The dispute at the Port of Charleston is a rare flare-up in what has been a mostly peaceful longshore labor environment on the East and Gulf coasts over many years.

There is no solution currently on the horizon that will prevent the next meltdown at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, irrespective of what triggers it.

Container line CEOs and others told the JOC's TPM21 conference that carriers have been doing their best to adjust to volumes that surged to record levels in the second half of 2020 after plummeting during early COVID-19 lockdowns.

Just when the container shipping system needed more capacity to handle resurgent volumes, the reduced circulation of containers caused a contraction in available capacity, driving up rates and further compounding massive cargo delays.